www.CarolinaHardMoney.com
Bob & Beth Lechance
REVA GLobal
https://revaglobal.com/
Bob Lachance has been an active business owner and real estate investor since 2004. Bob is an entrepreneur by nature and currently owns, operates and manages many different businesses around the world.
Bob helped create one of the top Real Estate Coaching and Mentor programs in existence today and also created one of the premiere Virtual Assistants Staffing companies, REVA Global LLC. Bob is an expert in the real estate investing space and has an incredible reputation for creation, implementation, and execution.
Combining her strong leadership and determination with her 16 years of experience in Real Estate Project Management and project budgeting with Hat Trick Holding, LLC, and over 22 years of corporate experience in the private and public sector of Surgical Device, Pharmaceutical, and Specialty Pharmacy Industries – Beth keeps the company moving forward with high-level strategy front-and-center while understanding the details of day-to-day execution to ensure a steadfast success.
Listen to our Podcast here:
https://thealternativeinvestor.libsyn.com/71-bob-beth-lechance
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Wendy Sweet (00:09):
Hey y'all!
Bill Fairman (00:12):
Hi everyone! Good day! It's another Thursday.
Wendy Sweet (00:16):
That's right! At Carolina Capital Management here in the beautiful city of downtown Rock Hill, South Carolina! Woohh!! It's a beautiful place, right? Yes.
Bill Fairman (00:27):
Don't forget to share, like, and subscribe to our show.
Wendy Sweet (00:33):
That's right.
Bill Fairman (00:35):
What is our show, anyway?
Wendy Sweet (00:38):
Our show is education for the benefit of you. That's really what we're trying to do is share the information that we learned from all these great masterminds we get to attend. And that kind of thing. And we're really excited about what's happening since things have opened back up from the corona virus.
Bill Fairman (00:56):
And that's assuming you don't live in North Carolina.
Wendy Sweet (00:59):
Yeah. Yeah. You've got to wear masks again.
Bill Fairman (01:01):
So the governor of North Carolina has decided to extend Phase Two for another three weeks. That means gyms and bowling alleys are gonna all go broke.
Wendy Sweet (01:12):
Yeah! That's for sure. And it's sad, but let's talk about the positive side. Positive side is real estate is as hot as it can be. Bill's a Debbie Downer, if you don't know that. So with the, things are just looking great in the real estate. Houses are flying off the market, which we're really, really thrilled to say. Especially in the affordable housing arena. And they're, people are finding deals. It's just moving right along. And that's not only on the investor side, but also on the retail side, things seem to really be picking up. And we're very, very excited about that.
Bill Fairman (01:51):
It really rates for the consumer. Aren't going up anytime. I mean, there's going to be a little fluctuation. But,
Wendy Sweet (01:59):
And we're starting to see the long term loans are starting to come back a little bit too. Yeah,
Bill Fairman (02:04):
That would be the investor long term loan. But if you're financing anything in your own name, I don't want to get closer. I'm social distancing!
Wendy Sweet (02:12):
We're going to have to, cause we were going to have three pictures up. Come on! Love me, brother! We've got to Lechance's that are coming up.
Bill Fairman (02:22):
I don't know, but they'll be able to see it. Not that I don't like you.
Wendy Sweet (02:29):
I don't like him!
Bill Fairman (02:29):
I'm in that vulnerable age. And I live in North Carolina.
Wendy Sweet (02:36):
That's right! Poor guy!
Bill Fairman (02:37):
What was I saying? If you're getting a loan in your own name, even if it is for investment property, there's still no issues with that. There are plenty, if you are a real estate investor who is doing buy and hold properties, it's still difficult to get long term financing.
Wendy Sweet (02:56):
Getting easier though! Getting easier. And that's, I was referring to. Those loans are getting easier. They're not pretty.
Bill Fairman (03:02):
If you're working with a local bank and I don't mean one of the big banks. A local regional bank or credit union. Those guys are...
Wendy Sweet (03:11):
Still have some cents.
Bill Fairman (03:12):
Still doing low interest rates that the LTVs are going to be a little bit lower, but really what we've been counting on in the past is the secondary loan market. So it's typically your larger hedge funds that are doing these longer term loans. And they've been a little hesitant to jump back.
Wendy Sweet (03:32):
Yeah. And what's making them so ugly is that they are offered, their loans to values are crazy! Like, we're lending at 65%. And that's lower than what we normally do. We were at, we were at 70%, but what I'm seeing is literally 35% loan to value on a cash out refi. That's insane! 45% and 50%. Yeah. Saw that yesterday. 45% and 55% for purchases. And it depends on the price range, your credit score and all those other things. So it's, it's, you know, just be prepared to bring some serious cash to the table. And if you're going to refinance a house that might as well be paid for, if you're only going to get 35% loan to value,
Bill Fairman (04:19):
Or you can wait a few months to refinance. Just wait. They'll come back. They're looking to see where this goes. You have a lot of municipalities, States, that won't allow you to evict anybody after six months. And then in California, they were doing six months. And then it was an automatic extension for another six months. It's crazy.
Wendy Sweet (04:43):
Yeah! But that's California.
Bill Fairman (04:44):
Anyway. That's why we don't live there. So, if you were in the real estate business and you're a small bit, actually
Wendy Sweet (04:53):
Any, any size business yeah.
Bill Fairman (04:57):
Now is a great time to kind of restructure your business and look at getting virtual assistants. And we are so pleased to have our guests on today.
Wendy Sweet (05:08):
Good friends!
Bill Fairman (05:08):
They always come on from different rooms cause they're social distancing as well. And I have to tell this story,
Wendy Sweet (05:24):
He was going to Beth, just get ready for it.
Bill Fairman (05:30):
It was so funny. We were...
Wendy Sweet (05:35):
Freedom Founders Mastermind.
Bill Fairman (05:37):
No! Collective Genius!
Wendy Sweet (05:37):
Oh yeah. That one.
Bill Fairman (05:40):
And there was like 140 people on. And they all had their screen names on. And poor Beth's proud, was on earlier. And one of the other kids were playing not so fun with them. But on the screen name...
Wendy Sweet (05:56):
She changed your mom's name to...
Bill Fairman (05:59):
Aiden is a poopy pants. She got to have that in front of 140 people as her name. That was terrible. And I saw it and I think the lady, what she saw it because I looked at the screen looking normal and all of a sudden her face just went. Then her video went blank. And then her real name came back up.
Wendy Sweet (06:24):
Hear the kids screaming in the background.
Beth Lechance (06:29):
There was definitely some quarantining at that night in my house with my kids. I put them in their rooms for a long time for that one.
Wendy Sweet (06:37):
That was funny.
Bill Fairman (06:38):
I put in a chat there for Bob. I said, Bob, did you do this to your wife?
Bob Lechance (06:45):
And then a couple of text messages in the back. That's funny!
Bill Fairman (06:48):
So we have Bob and Beth Lechance from Reva Global. The reason I mentioned Bob's name first, because he's got the logo behind him. We all know that Beth does all the work.
Beth Lechance (07:07):
Thank you, Bill! Thank you!
Bill Fairman (07:07):
Thank you so much for being on our show, by the way.
Bob Lechance (07:13):
Thanks for having us. We appreciate it.
Bill Fairman (07:13):
I do have to ask, how'd you guys get started in the virtual assistant business anyway.
Bob Lechance (07:20):
Yeah. So it actually started back in 2014. Well, 2013. We first got our first virtual assistant and we didn't know what a virtual assistant was, to be honest with that. And you know, back then there were webinars not podcasts. So her first got introduced to virtual assistants through a webinar. It was a big group back in the day. So first of all, it peaked my interest. We know, we knew that we needed help in our, not only in our own business, but we're actually running a real estate education coaching program as well. We knew our students needed that. So we were always been looking for different ways to you know, not only help our business, but help other people's businesses. And then as soon as virtual assistants came up, a light bulb went on. I said, you know what? This could potentially be a business. You know, not only helping our own real estate company, but also for everybody. So that was really the start of it. And then 2014, we launched our first company. And it wasn't called Reva Global back in the day. But we launched our first company. Wanted to make sure that we, there was a proof of concept. What I mean by that is, you know, first when you come up with an idea, we like testing things. First, we use our virtual assistants to test different parts of our real estate business before we talk about it. So I think it's very important for us to do that. Or for any company to do that. Because you know, Beth and I are, if we're standing up on stage and we're preaching something, we want to make sure it works. Right? And I think long term for any business, you know, over time, you will be found out if you dont, if you're not transparent, and you don't test what you're selling. And that's just something Beth and I have always been, you know, I've always done from day one and we're proud of that. And then so anyway, two years we tested it for two years, proof of concept that worked and then you know, fast forward now or six years later and doing pretty good.
Wendy Sweet (09:16):
Are you still doing real estate stuff?
Bob Lechance (09:18):
We are! We are! Yeah, we've got a couple of flips going on. Just my business part, my real estate business partner just came in with a check which is pretty good. He showed Beth, Beth was all happy. Cause we're building, we're building up our single family buy and hold. It's kind of funny. You guys are just talking about that. And Beth and I were messaging each other. The local bank, we do have a local bank here that is in 3% to 4% on single family buy and holds. I'm like, yup. I was just message her back and forth saying, we've got to get an appointment with one of our local banks.
Wendy Sweet (09:50):
Yeah. That makes all the difference in the world. So yeah.
Bill Fairman (09:54):
Now that you have that checked, Beth can afford her own screen name.
Wendy Sweet (09:56):
That's right!
Bill Fairman (10:01):
I didn't mean to interrupt you.
Wendy Sweet (10:02):
Yeah. That's awesome! So, when you were a real, just a real estate person and you're testing out this, your first VA, so what did you use that person for? What, what were your needs and what were they able to fill?
Bob Lechance (10:18):
Yeah, our main needs at that time, we're building a contractor list cause we all know in real estate contractors come and go. We also use them to build a buyers list. So those main things, you know, they were scrubbing on LinkedIn. They're scrubbing on Google. They're calling them, vetting them, making sure that they're buying. Just like what we're doing. Now. We had to obviously through this whole COVID-19 Corona thing, we had our VA's do the same exact thing. We started from scratch because a lot of the old buyers were gone just like lenders. Right? So we, we did the same thing. We continued to do that through Facebook today. We're posting ads that said, Hey, who's buying today? And then they drive into a Google doc into a Google, or they fill out a Google form. They go into a Google doc and our VAs, outbound call them to vet them and make sure they're still buying.
Wendy Sweet (11:09):
Awesome! So, when, when was it that you thought yourself, Hey we can turn this VA thing into a business. I mean, I know for years we've been talking about VAs and all the different mastermind groups we're in. People talk about, Hey, I need a VA for this and I need a VA for that. And everybody was going to basically one place, which has since changed its name, but everybody was going there to find VAs. So, how did you know there was a, a place for another company and what made you think that you could really do a successful business with something like this?
Bob Lechance (11:48):
Yeah, that's a great question. Like I said before, so for the real estate education company we helped create, this was back in 2007, we're always looking, you know, I've always been looking at different ways to help, to help people with really these a real estate investor base. So to help individuals do tasks that are affordable because many of us in different States here in Connecticut, if I'm going to hire somebody, if Beth and I are going to hire somebody full time, it's going to cost us about $50,000 a year, $4,000 a month. As a four year college degree. But we've come to find out in Philippines, you can hire somebody for less than $20,000 a year, which is a huge savings for somebody who is a four year college graduates. So we decided to use the Philippines as an example of what we do with our business. So through that time, and we decided that you know, marrying our, the education platform that we helped again, create with talent, we put them together and then we created, we said, you know what, wow, this is gonna work. So over time the thought was back then to create something like this. And then I read the book, Compound Effect. And Compound Effect actually got us thinking in terms of all right, not only buy and hold, but also business wise. What is that compound effect? It's really on the business side, it's billable hours on the, on the business side. So just to, just to lay it out that way, that's what got the wheels turning. And then when we figured out we can actually service in a whole industry where like, you know what, this is, you know, we have something here. We didn't know because we had to then figure out how to run a business out of the Philippines. Right? We had to figure out how you could send money through different country, you know, legally. And you know, we had to fly over there a couple of times set up bank accounts, set up LLCs, all that kind of stuff. There's a lot of stuff that people don't see, but you know, a lot of, a lot of pain but now we're here where we are.
Bill Fairman (13:54):
Selling bit coin?
Beth Lechance (14:02):
If I could add to that too, finding the niche and especially within real estate investing. So I think of course there is now fast forward six, seven years. There's now so many options out there for trying to find or hiring a virtual assistant. But what we have done is we really focused in on the niche of real estate investors and making sure that we're bringing in the right talent, we're training them and fully train them at real estate and real estate investing and all of the potential tasks that would get delegated to them. So that's where we knew where really, where we could really hone in on. Bob has been in the coaching world for, you know, for, for decades now, Bob I'm aging you, but for decades now. You know, he really knew, okay, what are the tasks? What are the things that would be needed within a real estate investor for even a new real estate investor? What kind of things a VA would need to do to help them on a day to day basis? Versus a, an investor that is really that's really invested that has many years and that is really building a very large company, how then can we help with creating a virtual assistant tasks within that? And then managing all of that? Of course, because part of our services that we also manage that. So, that's really where our specialty is. Whereas a lot of other virtual assistant companies, they don't specialize in that. They just specialize with, Yes, we'll hook you up with a great virtual assistant, but they don't specialize in the, in the training portion and like what we do.
Wendy Sweet (15:35):
Awesome! So I'm interested in seeing what that looks like. I'm an investor and you know, coming to you and saying, Hey, I need help in these different areas. So how do you take it from there? What do you do?
Bill Fairman (15:50):
And before you answer that question. Those of you on the audience can also ask questions by using the chat to the right.
Wendy Sweet (15:56):
That's right! That's right! That's right! Please chat questions for sure.
Beth Lechance (16:02):
Yeah. I can take this one. So what we do is we, we can, typically someone will come to us with knowing what their pain points are. So they already know where they need the help. Many investors are so overwhelmed and we help them kind of narrow it down to a list of tasks that we can immediately take off of their plate to put onto a virtual assistant and onto a trained virtual assistant with those tasks. So that's where we start. So that conversation begins with, where are your pain points? What are the things that are the task that can be, that are done over and over and over again, that you shouldn't be spending your time doing? You should be spending your time building your business? Bob always uses the term, which I love. The saying you know, if you're doing $10 tasks, you have a $10 bank account. So all of those tasks and those redundant things that are absolutely necessary, they're necessary as a part of your business, but they're not necessary for you to do. They can be delegated to a virtual assistant. So that's where we come in. So we narrow that down to what those pain points are. And then from there we bring our client through our onboarding process. So that's how we, and also, we also have clients that come to us that are like, I'm just so overwhelmed. I don't even know where to begin. And so of course we start with the pain points, but then we also have a 100 plus task list that we'll send them. That will help them. It's like a worksheet. They can kind of check off things that they know. Yes, I need this. Yes, I need that. And it helps us then help prioritize what tasks can you immediately delegate it to a VA?
Bob Lechance (17:37):
Yeah. Beth, I could add to that too. We typically break it down into income producing tasks and non-income producing tasks. So no matter what business you're in, it doesn't matter if you're, you got to use a virtual assistant or not virtual assistant. A great exercise to go through is grab a piece of paper, write down a, you know, a line in the middle of the piece of paper, put income-producing tasks, non-income producing tasks. So as a real estate professional, and we work with not only property managers, we work with investors agents on the real estate side, and that's the logo behind her. She has a medical division that we launched a little over a year ago.
Wendy Sweet (18:13):
Wow!
Beth Lechance (18:14):
Yep. So that's why the logos are different. I just want to make sure I say that. Because I don't think you're gonna ask. So just go along the lines with the example there, I would definitely recommend everybody does that. And what you'll find are all the non-income producing tasks. So if I'm a real estate investor, a lot of the tasks would be building a buyers list that does not put any money in my pocket. Cause I'm sitting there not building my business. I'm scraping leads online, posting the Craigslist, posting the Facebook, scraping leads from Zillow. So on the lead generation side. Then once you have all of those leads ,for me as an investor, it doesn't benefit me to pick up the phone and just hammer the phone. I'd rather have a virtual assistant do that. It doesn't benefit me to text message after you get all of those prospects, if you will skip trace to get a proper phone number for those particular prospects. Once you put them into a text message platform, it doesn't do me as the business owner, any good text messaging, potential clients back and forth. We have our virtual assistants do that to gauge seller motivation. Then when they deem at hot, they give it over to us. So those are, that's just a couple examples of some of the time consuming things that that you could get off of your plate. Then you'll notice that's on that list. Those are non-income producing tasks. Income producing tasks are, you know, jumping on podcast promoting. Going to masterminds, like, like we're all part of the same one, right? I know this virtual one, the beauty of, of the last mastermind call where I was a two day mastermind. And we, Beth and I did not have to worry about lead generation at all and making sure our marketing was going out because our virtual assistants took care of that. So that's a good example of things that you could just outsource to a virtual assistant.
Wendy Sweet (20:11):
Yeah. I think the key word that you guys have used over and over again is trained virtual assistant. That's the key, I, we've, we've dabbled in the virtual assistant world and failed both times because we didn't go through a company like yours. And we did a really poor job of training them. Letting them know what it is that we needed. So what do you do that's different?
Bob Lechance (20:40):
Yeah. And some of the things that we do, and that's a great point. And I actually just got off a call right before we jumped down to this one, with that same exact challenge there. We put our virtual assistants through a month long training. But one of the things that I did want to highlight, I always, I use this example all the time. It's the 80-20 rule, right? Let's say we're all investors. We all learn off the same platform, right? The same education platform. But I like to say it's an 80-20 rule where you have, you know, someone like Corey Raymond, that's doing 20% of his business, a little different. That's where the gold is made. You've got Jimmy Vreeland, who does his business, a little different. He wholesales rehabs and also has a buy and hold company, property management company. That's the 20% that's different. So that 20% is definitely going to be specific to each and every one of us. Right? So I'll give you a good example. We do, Beth and I, do here in Connecticut. We have a different foreclosure process than everybody else. So we have a judicial website that we have a virtual assistant going through every single day to look for individuals that stopped paying their mortgage. And they go up and they log into the judicial website looking for any property that has a new sale date, a foreclosure auction date, because our process is very, very long. So our VAs track all of that and then pull a phone number, put it on a spreadsheet, texts and call them for us as an example. So that is just something that we do. That's the 20% that we do different on that side of it. I have to create a video for them, 5-10 minute video for them. And that hand that off to them to make sure that they are trained on that little niche of what I want, what I want to get done. All of our other VA's are trained on how to text message, how to cold call, how to follow up. Things of those nature.
Bill Fairman (22:38):
What are some of the obstacles you have from having virtual assistants in another serious time zone? Plus you know, distance on the phone? Are you seeing any pushback from some of the people that they're talking to on the phone? I know from experience, there's very little accent there. That's noticeable, but I always know if somebody is out of the country because there's always a long delay between talking to them on the phone. Texting works better.
Bob Lechance (23:13):
And that's a great question. So we, in our, in our recruiting. With our recruiting department is they do we do a systems check. So we check all of their systems and make sure that there's no delay. So that's one of them. You make sure they have enough storage on their computer and make sure they have backup. Make sure that internet providers are correct provider. So we take care of all that to make sure that doesn't happen. But on top of that, this is a little tip. If anyone has an active virtual assistant as well, make sure you get a local number, if you're doing cold calling or text messaging, because that's important. I mean, Wendy, you called me and it's 704 number, and I didn't know this was you. So text me. I'm not perfect. Right? That's a perfect example of making sure no matter what, if you're going to use one of our virtual assistants or somebody else that you do get a local number. So those are just a couple ideas, Beth, if you want to add anything or did I tackle all on this?
Beth Lechance (24:07):
Yeah, no, you did. So, Bill, that's a really big factor that we have seen. And again, that's from working with companies or working with direct VA's that you didn't have, you didn't have the systems check. You didn't make sure that they had the correct internet provider. Internet in the Philippines is very different than the internet here. And so it's very important that they're set up with their proper company. And so that there isn't that delay. So, that's one of the things that we do ahead of time. That's part of our systems check and part of our, what we do. So as soon as we bring in a new virtual assistant that's, that is part of our process. So ultimately they don't go through training unless they have the right system. So that's how that, how that works with us.
Bill Fairman (24:50):
Excellent! So in the real estate side of things, what do you think is the largest utilization for virtual assistants? Is it, is it say the wholesale side of things or who is, who's your typical client?
Bob Lechance (25:12):
You want to take this Beth or you want me to take it?
Beth Lechance (25:16):
Bob's gonna have a long winded answer, so I'll let him. I'll let him take it, but great, great question because we have, we have every possible specialty within real estate and real estate investing. Those are our clients. I would say the most, most of our clients have some sort of wholesaling or doing wholesaling. However, we have found that most of our clients have moved in the direction of, they're not just doing one thing in order to really do well in real estate investing. They really need to be able to find cash in deals in multiple ways. And that is not just wholesaling. That is not just buy and holds. That's not just flipping. So most of our clients have put together multiple exit strategies as part of their business. So, but I'll let, I'll let Bob kind of go in a little bit deeper you know, as to why, you know, why they're doing that or also what tasks they have our VAs do.
Bob Lechance (26:11):
You nailed it! I got nothing else to talk about. That's good! Just to add to that.
Bill Fairman (26:20):
We knew there was going to be, just to add.
Bob Lechance (26:27):
And there's more and more just to add to it. That's what we find right now in our own business as well. Where we're seeing more investors that are starting on the wholesale side. Now they're doing rehabs. Now they're getting into buy and holds and they're also getting their real estate license. So it's kind of those four things that we're seeing and there's tasks that you can outsource on each one of those, because within each business, there's a lot of time consuming things, you know. With wholesaling, building a buyers list, marketing. With rehabbing, you know, it's marketing. You've got to keep marketing, getting the phone on, and getting the leads in, right, getting the leads in. And then you'll look at them on the agent side. It is cold calling, following up and transaction coordinating. And on a property management side, it's a laundry list of things from, you know, taking inbound calls, not only from tenants, but taking inbound calls from potential or from, from other individual investors that you're managing properties for. It's maintenance calls, it's leasing, it's lease renewals, things like that. So we're finding it is getting more and more even out on those four avenues of real estate investing because they're really coming together because that is how the best investors are getting through any type of ups and downs. Because, you know, if you're only wholesaling, it's going to be very difficult to get through some markets when they change. But when you're doing a little bit of everything, it's easy for you to pivot and change and not get hit by a COVID or not get hit by a financial downturn like we did in '07, '08, '09, et cetera. So that's what we're finding the smart investors go through. And that's a lot of our clients right now are starting to, you know, change or dip their toes in like Beth and I, as, as investors. We're now starting to buy single family houses with section eight tenants. That's just a little diversification plan to say, Hey, guess what? If there's less flips and less wholesales over here, Hey, who cares? And our kids are getting ready to go to college, we'll have enough money to be able to pay for them on their cash flow, where the houses is, the idea.
Wendy Sweet (28:36):
Well, I think that COVID probably helped you guys in a big way because now people realize that you don't have to have a body in your office to get things done. It made us realize that there were a lot more things that we could do from home, you know, and that our employees could do from home rather than have to come into the office and do things like that. I know, you know, you talked about property management, I'm an air, a short term rental junkie, and I'm getting more and more and I'm getting more and more busy from it. You know, I've really already have a full time job, but my sidekick is becoming you know, busier and busier. So I need somebody, preferably a VA that would be a lot less expensive than a real body to take care of all the little tasks that are behind the scenes. And there's so many out there, so many tasks out there that need to be taken care of, you know, talking with the tenant, that's getting ready to check in making sure the cleaner's doing their job.
Bill Fairman (29:45):
I was going to say, we need a VA to clean the places.
Wendy Sweet (29:47):
Yeah. That would be really nice, but I need real hands for that. Yeah.
Bob Lechance (29:53):
And the CRM management behind that, obviously you have a CRM behind it and coordinating with tenants that come in, come out.
Wendy Sweet (29:59):
How do you know they're working? Like, you know, you're paying somebody $10 an hour. How do you know they're working? What are some of the tools you have in place to make sure they're doing what they're supposed to be doing?
Bob Lechance (30:11):
Well, we always start from the beginning. We said, what are the results that each and every, whether an Airbnb or you're wholesaling, rehabbing, what is it, the task that you want done? And what are the typical results that you actually have? And throughout the day, you know, we're messaging back and forth with our VAs. We have either it's our CRM. So for us, we use two different CRMs. We have a Real Flow and we also use a Podio based platform which is one of our new members as part of our evolution. So we use that in our VAs, inside our CRM all day long, outbound dialing as an example. Right. And we, they send an end of day report every single day to see what tasks were expected in what they got done. So we track the numbers in reference to that. But that's a great question. Beth, did you want to add to it, anything like that?
Beth Lechance (31:04):
Yeah, sure. So productivity is always a really big factor, right? So, I mean, we always want to look at that, especially when you have someone who's not in your office, they're in their own home virtual office. Right. So there's a few different ways to involve touched upon that at the end of day report. The end of day report is really the proof of the pudding, right? I mean, you can see how many avant dials were made, how many new appointments were then added into your calendar or your acquisitions manager's calendar, so on and so forth. So all of that is you can see when someone is really being productive and whether or not, if there is ever a productivity issue that has immediately brought up, we have a client service manager in our real estate, in our real estate division. We have client service managers, what's their role to oversee the VAs that are assigned to our clients. So they're also touching base with the VA's to make sure that they're doing their roles, they're hitting the client's expectations. And so that person is a really important person to the success of that partnership between the VA and the client. So we set those expectations. So Wendy, if you started with us and you needed to hire a virtual assistant. We would immediately set you up with our client services manager to find out what are your expectations. What is the productivity level that you're expecting to see? So then therefore that client service manager is keeping an eye on that VA everyday to make sure they're hitting those expectations. So beyond that, of course, there's additional tools that you can add. If it's out bound dialing, for example, you can look within your avant dialing system and it tells you how many minutes the VA was actually actively dialing, how many calls were made and so on and so forth. There's also other tools that you can download onto their computer to be able to do screenshots here and there to make sure that they're actively working. So, but productivity, I mean, if you have the correct end of day report set up, you will see that your VA is really working and working at the level you're expecting.
Wendy Sweet (32:58):
Right. I know, I know in our office, our whole attitude is, you know, we don't really care how long you're working as long as your work is done. As long as we're getting accomplished, what we're looking for, that's, what's really, really important for us. So, say I just needed somebody part time, you know, five hours a week or just five hours a day.
Bill Fairman (33:23):
You stole my question!
Wendy Sweet (33:23):
Oh, I'm sorry. Well, you can ask him, go ahead. I won't do it.
Bill Fairman (33:26):
It's already been spoiled! But yeah. Do you have a maximum or minimum that you would have somebody doing tasks for someone for a smaller business perhaps?
Beth Lechance (33:38):
Right. Great, great question. So we here at Reva global, we do not have project based. So for example, if he said, Oh, I just needed somebody to do my social media two hours a week. We don't have those positions available. Our commitment to our VA's is to get them full time work. So that's how we're able to bring in really highly talented people. And we keep them. Our retention is very high here because we offer good pay. We also offer a fantastic benefits package. That includes things like health insurance for themselves, and a dependent. Fully funded by us. They don't pay copays, they don't pay deductibles. They don't pay into the health insurance as well as a robust benefits package that has a lot of other things. So that's also part of making sure when you're hiring a VA, if you're going with a company, make sure that they've got a really great retention rate and their VA stay long term because you're investing in the time with your VA and you want them to stay. So our commitment to our VA's is full time work. So we offer part time 20 hours a week with one client, and then we give them the opportunity to get hired by an additional client for the other 20 hours a week to give them full time work. If then if you wanted to have a full time VA, then that one VA would be working directly and only for you. And there are 40 hours a week. Plus if you want it to them to add an additional hours on top of that would only be delegated and working towards you and your business. So that's how we do that. We do have some full time plus VAs. Meaning we have some VA's that want to work overtime. And so for clients like yourselves, if you had a VA of ours and you said, you know what, but I also just need X, Y, and Z, but it might only be for a short project. Like I need, you know, we built a new CRM. So all the stuff from the old CRM needs to go into the new one. Can we hire somebody? Absolutely. You're a client of ours. We will get you a project based VA for something like that. So that's how we work internally here. And that's how we're able to get some really good talent and they stay long term.
Bill Fairman (35:29):
Well, it makes sense. I know you guys act like a family. I've seen pictures of your employees at Christmas and when you guys go to visit. It really is cool.
Wendy Sweet (35:43):
Really cool!
Beth Lechance (35:45):
Yeah. It's one of the things that we're really most proud of is even though I, you know, everyone that works for us is across the other side of the world. I'm aware we're with them virtually, constantly. I mean, every day, all day, we're interacting with them through the screen. Right. But when we get to get, when we do get together, it is like a big giant family function. We, we also do outreach in the communities, in the Philippines as well. So we have something called, Helping Hands foundation which is we pick a charity in the Philippines that we feel strongly agreed about. Typically it's something around children. And we donate funds and also our time and energy into some sort of corporate or some event around that. So for example, our last one that we did, Helping Hands project we did was at home for the angels, which was, which is in the Philippines in Manila. It is a home for abandoned babies. So babies, the age from three weeks up to three years old, they are there in this one. This one home called the Home For The Angels. Which so we obviously donated funds to, to help with paying for medicine vaccinations. And then also we spent a full day there with 25 of our virtual assistants. Cause we were capped at 25. We had a tremendous number of VA's that wanted to help in this event, but we were capped at 25. Cause that's all like, they, the home would allow us to bring in. And we would spend hours just playing and holding all these children. It was just so great. So that's something we also feel really proud of that we can participate and have our virtual assistants participate in something, you know, to help the greater good. So yeah, it's always, we all get together.
Wendy Sweet (37:30):
That was awesome!
Bill Fairman (37:31):
Yeah, that, that is great! I, we were getting kind of close on time. I did want to mention something about your medical side of things.
Wendy Sweet (37:41):
Yeah! Let's hear about that!
Beth Lechance (37:43):
Right now with what's going on. I'm seeing really great things, especially on the dental side if you can get in there because I'm seeing after they're allowed to get back to work. They're not going to have as many clients or patients. The dentist is going to have to do a lot more of the work themselves. And this is going to be very helpful for them to have more VA's. Right?
Beth Lechance (38:12):
Absolutely!
Bill Fairman (38:12):
That's what I'm saying going forward. What about you?
Beth Lechance (38:16):
Yeah, no, absolutely. COVID was has been an eye opener for medical practices and hospital settings across the country. What they didn't think that they could do telehealth. They didn't think that they could do things virtually and now they forced to. So this is really been a phenomenal opportunity for Reva Global Medical, because those hard to reach doctors, there were like, eh, no, that now I have their total by him. They are really excited about this. It's possible we can do all their insurance verifications. We can do their new patient intakes. We can, it, we can do anything in terms of the management of the patient virtually. So, it has really taken off. It has gone really well for us in this last year and a half, and we've had to curb our marketing because I like slow and steady. I don't like to be slammed because I also want to make sure that every client, every new medical practice gets our full attention to get up and running. To make sure that things go well, obviously with HIPAA and making sure that, you know all health information is fully protected. So we make sure that we fully understand the concept of the medical practice and how we're going to be utilized in that practice. We come up and design all of the trainings. So in the event that they want to continue to add on which every single client that we have brought on so far has started with one virtual assistant and have expanded to two, three, four. So I have seen, I mean, it has really expanded within each medical practice and in an incredible way. So it's an exciting thing. But like I said, we had to curb our marketing because again, we want to make sure that we can pay the attention that we need to, to every new client that's brought on new medical practice that we are fully engaged. So but it's, it's an exciting time for us, for sure.
Wendy Sweet (40:18):
Wow!
Bill Fairman (40:19):
Well, one of the things, I didn't want to make it sound like they're not going to make as much money and things are gloomy. With the video, because it actually is an opportunity to combine video with follow-up visits. For example, if a, you know, you're a dentist and you've put clients in, you always have to have a follow-up visit. You can easily schedule a video for them to look at this as long as they have the proper lighting and know how to work it. And then that means you don't have to have an assistant or agentis and a chair being filled when somebody else on the money making side can be in that chair. The same thing with medical professionals. There's things that you can do tele-wise that still frees up the doctor and the chair or the bed that they normally wouldn't have that followup visit in. Right? Schedule, more money making visits instead of follow ups. Right?
Beth Lechance (41:23):
Absolutely! And you would be able to utilize a virtual assistant to be able to manage all of that. Plus there will always have to be at some point a an in person visit with the physician. So if that's the case, the medical assistant and or front desk person now, the way they're having to work, these medical practices is all the patients are all coming in and sitting in the waiting room anymore. They're out on their car waiting to be called in. So utilizing a VA to be able to manage the patients coming and going any paperwork that they need to have before they come. All of that stuff can be managed by the VA so that the front office staff and or medical assistant can really just focus on the patient care and making sure that they're properly bringing the patient into the room and then escorting them out. All the, while all the rest of it is being handled and handled by a VA. So and we've, we've been utilized in that fashion immediately with some of our medical practices because just managing, I mean the front desk of a medical practice is always extremely busy. Now on top of that, they're expected to walk out to the patient's car, give them any paperwork, take their temperature before they're allowed to walk in. So that's taking them out of their chair and out of their desks while there's still incoming calls coming in and triaging that needs to get happen. That needs to be happening. So that's where a virtual assistant, they're not going to take up a chair. They're not going to take up any space in the practice. They're not going to be another risk as another, another person in the office with the presentation of COVID. So so they're able to manage the you know, patients as they get into the parking lot. They're making a phone call to the VA. The VA is notifying the office. They're sending out, sending any paperwork that needs to be done through email or through text message so that they can quickly put in the information they need. And then therefore, then the patient is allowed to enter the building. So there's different ways to be able to utilize virtual assistants, especially right now, but most definitely long term.
Wendy Sweet (43:24):
That's just, it's amazing! It's just amazing! And I think that a lot of people don't realize how easy it is to put a VA in place of so many tasks that we're doing. And in our, our show that we're going to have at 1:05 or 1:10, a little after one o'clock. Little after one o'clock. We're going to have some companies that are actually using your VA's. We're going to have some people talking about how they use them and what they use them for, how they're trained, how they're working out. And I think that's going to be a really good thing for a lot of people to hear. How can people get in touch with you? What's the best way for them to reach you?
Beth Lechance (44:09):
Go ahead, Bob.
Bob Lechance (44:11):
Sure. You check us out on our website, which is RevaGlobal.com which you can email me direct as well. Email myself or Beth. My email address is Bob@RevaGlobal.com Beth is Beth@RevaGlobal.com. We also have a podcast in Friday mornings called Friday Coffee Break at 10:00 AM. We have fun time answering, it's just open Q and a questions myself. You know, Pat Precourt and Amy Raines though, we do that as a, as a call. So it's another way to it, just to, just to get to know us as a company.
Wendy Sweet (44:45):
Awesome! And how can we, how can we get on that? And hear that?
Bob Lechance (44:50):
Just go onto Facebook and it's Friday Coffee Break unfiltered.
Wendy Sweet (44:55):
Ok. Awesome!
Bill Fairman (44:55):
Excellent. So you guys can do that right after Wendy Sunrise. Our meeting every Friday.
Wendy Sweet (45:00):
That's right! Mine's at 7:30.
Bob Lechance (45:03):
Yeah. Med VA website.
Beth Lechance (45:08):
Med Va is RevaGlobalMD.com RevaGlobalMD.com
Wendy Sweet (45:13):
Okay!
Bill Fairman (45:14):
Excellent.
Wendy Sweet (45:15):
All right.
Bill Fairman (45:15):
So if anyone has any questions about what Carolina Capital Management does, we are CarolinaHardMoney.com If you're a borrower looking to borrow, hit the borrower tab! That's easy. If you're an investor looking to get passive income through real estate, without the worries of ownership, hit the investor tab!
Wendy Sweet (45:38):
That's right! Tell all your friends!
Bill Fairman (45:40):
Guys, thank you so much. Those of you that are joining us as an audience we'll be back on...
Wendy Sweet (45:46):
A little after one, on a different link, right? Isn't it a different link?
Bill Fairman (45:49):
And you guys are going to join us as well.
Wendy Sweet (45:51):
Yeah. We'll have you back.
Bob Lechance (45:57):
Awesome.
Bill Fairman (45:58):
Alright!
Beth Lechance (45:58):
Thank you guys. Thank you.
Wendy Sweet (46:00):
Thank you.
REVA GLobal
https://revaglobal.com/
Bob Lachance has been an active business owner and real estate investor since 2004. Bob is an entrepreneur by nature and currently owns, operates and manages many different businesses around the world.
Bob helped create one of the top Real Estate Coaching and Mentor programs in existence today and also created one of the premiere Virtual Assistants Staffing companies, REVA Global LLC. Bob is an expert in the real estate investing space and has an incredible reputation for creation, implementation, and execution.
Combining her strong leadership and determination with her 16 years of experience in Real Estate Project Management and project budgeting with Hat Trick Holding, LLC, and over 22 years of corporate experience in the private and public sector of Surgical Device, Pharmaceutical, and Specialty Pharmacy Industries – Beth keeps the company moving forward with high-level strategy front-and-center while understanding the details of day-to-day execution to ensure a steadfast success.
Listen to our Podcast here:
https://thealternativeinvestor.libsyn.com/71-bob-beth-lechance
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Wendy Sweet (00:09):
Hey y'all!
Bill Fairman (00:12):
Hi everyone! Good day! It's another Thursday.
Wendy Sweet (00:16):
That's right! At Carolina Capital Management here in the beautiful city of downtown Rock Hill, South Carolina! Woohh!! It's a beautiful place, right? Yes.
Bill Fairman (00:27):
Don't forget to share, like, and subscribe to our show.
Wendy Sweet (00:33):
That's right.
Bill Fairman (00:35):
What is our show, anyway?
Wendy Sweet (00:38):
Our show is education for the benefit of you. That's really what we're trying to do is share the information that we learned from all these great masterminds we get to attend. And that kind of thing. And we're really excited about what's happening since things have opened back up from the corona virus.
Bill Fairman (00:56):
And that's assuming you don't live in North Carolina.
Wendy Sweet (00:59):
Yeah. Yeah. You've got to wear masks again.
Bill Fairman (01:01):
So the governor of North Carolina has decided to extend Phase Two for another three weeks. That means gyms and bowling alleys are gonna all go broke.
Wendy Sweet (01:12):
Yeah! That's for sure. And it's sad, but let's talk about the positive side. Positive side is real estate is as hot as it can be. Bill's a Debbie Downer, if you don't know that. So with the, things are just looking great in the real estate. Houses are flying off the market, which we're really, really thrilled to say. Especially in the affordable housing arena. And they're, people are finding deals. It's just moving right along. And that's not only on the investor side, but also on the retail side, things seem to really be picking up. And we're very, very excited about that.
Bill Fairman (01:51):
It really rates for the consumer. Aren't going up anytime. I mean, there's going to be a little fluctuation. But,
Wendy Sweet (01:59):
And we're starting to see the long term loans are starting to come back a little bit too. Yeah,
Bill Fairman (02:04):
That would be the investor long term loan. But if you're financing anything in your own name, I don't want to get closer. I'm social distancing!
Wendy Sweet (02:12):
We're going to have to, cause we were going to have three pictures up. Come on! Love me, brother! We've got to Lechance's that are coming up.
Bill Fairman (02:22):
I don't know, but they'll be able to see it. Not that I don't like you.
Wendy Sweet (02:29):
I don't like him!
Bill Fairman (02:29):
I'm in that vulnerable age. And I live in North Carolina.
Wendy Sweet (02:36):
That's right! Poor guy!
Bill Fairman (02:37):
What was I saying? If you're getting a loan in your own name, even if it is for investment property, there's still no issues with that. There are plenty, if you are a real estate investor who is doing buy and hold properties, it's still difficult to get long term financing.
Wendy Sweet (02:56):
Getting easier though! Getting easier. And that's, I was referring to. Those loans are getting easier. They're not pretty.
Bill Fairman (03:02):
If you're working with a local bank and I don't mean one of the big banks. A local regional bank or credit union. Those guys are...
Wendy Sweet (03:11):
Still have some cents.
Bill Fairman (03:12):
Still doing low interest rates that the LTVs are going to be a little bit lower, but really what we've been counting on in the past is the secondary loan market. So it's typically your larger hedge funds that are doing these longer term loans. And they've been a little hesitant to jump back.
Wendy Sweet (03:32):
Yeah. And what's making them so ugly is that they are offered, their loans to values are crazy! Like, we're lending at 65%. And that's lower than what we normally do. We were at, we were at 70%, but what I'm seeing is literally 35% loan to value on a cash out refi. That's insane! 45% and 50%. Yeah. Saw that yesterday. 45% and 55% for purchases. And it depends on the price range, your credit score and all those other things. So it's, it's, you know, just be prepared to bring some serious cash to the table. And if you're going to refinance a house that might as well be paid for, if you're only going to get 35% loan to value,
Bill Fairman (04:19):
Or you can wait a few months to refinance. Just wait. They'll come back. They're looking to see where this goes. You have a lot of municipalities, States, that won't allow you to evict anybody after six months. And then in California, they were doing six months. And then it was an automatic extension for another six months. It's crazy.
Wendy Sweet (04:43):
Yeah! But that's California.
Bill Fairman (04:44):
Anyway. That's why we don't live there. So, if you were in the real estate business and you're a small bit, actually
Wendy Sweet (04:53):
Any, any size business yeah.
Bill Fairman (04:57):
Now is a great time to kind of restructure your business and look at getting virtual assistants. And we are so pleased to have our guests on today.
Wendy Sweet (05:08):
Good friends!
Bill Fairman (05:08):
They always come on from different rooms cause they're social distancing as well. And I have to tell this story,
Wendy Sweet (05:24):
He was going to Beth, just get ready for it.
Bill Fairman (05:30):
It was so funny. We were...
Wendy Sweet (05:35):
Freedom Founders Mastermind.
Bill Fairman (05:37):
No! Collective Genius!
Wendy Sweet (05:37):
Oh yeah. That one.
Bill Fairman (05:40):
And there was like 140 people on. And they all had their screen names on. And poor Beth's proud, was on earlier. And one of the other kids were playing not so fun with them. But on the screen name...
Wendy Sweet (05:56):
She changed your mom's name to...
Bill Fairman (05:59):
Aiden is a poopy pants. She got to have that in front of 140 people as her name. That was terrible. And I saw it and I think the lady, what she saw it because I looked at the screen looking normal and all of a sudden her face just went. Then her video went blank. And then her real name came back up.
Wendy Sweet (06:24):
Hear the kids screaming in the background.
Beth Lechance (06:29):
There was definitely some quarantining at that night in my house with my kids. I put them in their rooms for a long time for that one.
Wendy Sweet (06:37):
That was funny.
Bill Fairman (06:38):
I put in a chat there for Bob. I said, Bob, did you do this to your wife?
Bob Lechance (06:45):
And then a couple of text messages in the back. That's funny!
Bill Fairman (06:48):
So we have Bob and Beth Lechance from Reva Global. The reason I mentioned Bob's name first, because he's got the logo behind him. We all know that Beth does all the work.
Beth Lechance (07:07):
Thank you, Bill! Thank you!
Bill Fairman (07:07):
Thank you so much for being on our show, by the way.
Bob Lechance (07:13):
Thanks for having us. We appreciate it.
Bill Fairman (07:13):
I do have to ask, how'd you guys get started in the virtual assistant business anyway.
Bob Lechance (07:20):
Yeah. So it actually started back in 2014. Well, 2013. We first got our first virtual assistant and we didn't know what a virtual assistant was, to be honest with that. And you know, back then there were webinars not podcasts. So her first got introduced to virtual assistants through a webinar. It was a big group back in the day. So first of all, it peaked my interest. We know, we knew that we needed help in our, not only in our own business, but we're actually running a real estate education coaching program as well. We knew our students needed that. So we were always been looking for different ways to you know, not only help our business, but help other people's businesses. And then as soon as virtual assistants came up, a light bulb went on. I said, you know what? This could potentially be a business. You know, not only helping our own real estate company, but also for everybody. So that was really the start of it. And then 2014, we launched our first company. And it wasn't called Reva Global back in the day. But we launched our first company. Wanted to make sure that we, there was a proof of concept. What I mean by that is, you know, first when you come up with an idea, we like testing things. First, we use our virtual assistants to test different parts of our real estate business before we talk about it. So I think it's very important for us to do that. Or for any company to do that. Because you know, Beth and I are, if we're standing up on stage and we're preaching something, we want to make sure it works. Right? And I think long term for any business, you know, over time, you will be found out if you dont, if you're not transparent, and you don't test what you're selling. And that's just something Beth and I have always been, you know, I've always done from day one and we're proud of that. And then so anyway, two years we tested it for two years, proof of concept that worked and then you know, fast forward now or six years later and doing pretty good.
Wendy Sweet (09:16):
Are you still doing real estate stuff?
Bob Lechance (09:18):
We are! We are! Yeah, we've got a couple of flips going on. Just my business part, my real estate business partner just came in with a check which is pretty good. He showed Beth, Beth was all happy. Cause we're building, we're building up our single family buy and hold. It's kind of funny. You guys are just talking about that. And Beth and I were messaging each other. The local bank, we do have a local bank here that is in 3% to 4% on single family buy and holds. I'm like, yup. I was just message her back and forth saying, we've got to get an appointment with one of our local banks.
Wendy Sweet (09:50):
Yeah. That makes all the difference in the world. So yeah.
Bill Fairman (09:54):
Now that you have that checked, Beth can afford her own screen name.
Wendy Sweet (09:56):
That's right!
Bill Fairman (10:01):
I didn't mean to interrupt you.
Wendy Sweet (10:02):
Yeah. That's awesome! So, when you were a real, just a real estate person and you're testing out this, your first VA, so what did you use that person for? What, what were your needs and what were they able to fill?
Bob Lechance (10:18):
Yeah, our main needs at that time, we're building a contractor list cause we all know in real estate contractors come and go. We also use them to build a buyers list. So those main things, you know, they were scrubbing on LinkedIn. They're scrubbing on Google. They're calling them, vetting them, making sure that they're buying. Just like what we're doing. Now. We had to obviously through this whole COVID-19 Corona thing, we had our VA's do the same exact thing. We started from scratch because a lot of the old buyers were gone just like lenders. Right? So we, we did the same thing. We continued to do that through Facebook today. We're posting ads that said, Hey, who's buying today? And then they drive into a Google doc into a Google, or they fill out a Google form. They go into a Google doc and our VAs, outbound call them to vet them and make sure they're still buying.
Wendy Sweet (11:09):
Awesome! So, when, when was it that you thought yourself, Hey we can turn this VA thing into a business. I mean, I know for years we've been talking about VAs and all the different mastermind groups we're in. People talk about, Hey, I need a VA for this and I need a VA for that. And everybody was going to basically one place, which has since changed its name, but everybody was going there to find VAs. So, how did you know there was a, a place for another company and what made you think that you could really do a successful business with something like this?
Bob Lechance (11:48):
Yeah, that's a great question. Like I said before, so for the real estate education company we helped create, this was back in 2007, we're always looking, you know, I've always been looking at different ways to help, to help people with really these a real estate investor base. So to help individuals do tasks that are affordable because many of us in different States here in Connecticut, if I'm going to hire somebody, if Beth and I are going to hire somebody full time, it's going to cost us about $50,000 a year, $4,000 a month. As a four year college degree. But we've come to find out in Philippines, you can hire somebody for less than $20,000 a year, which is a huge savings for somebody who is a four year college graduates. So we decided to use the Philippines as an example of what we do with our business. So through that time, and we decided that you know, marrying our, the education platform that we helped again, create with talent, we put them together and then we created, we said, you know what, wow, this is gonna work. So over time the thought was back then to create something like this. And then I read the book, Compound Effect. And Compound Effect actually got us thinking in terms of all right, not only buy and hold, but also business wise. What is that compound effect? It's really on the business side, it's billable hours on the, on the business side. So just to, just to lay it out that way, that's what got the wheels turning. And then when we figured out we can actually service in a whole industry where like, you know what, this is, you know, we have something here. We didn't know because we had to then figure out how to run a business out of the Philippines. Right? We had to figure out how you could send money through different country, you know, legally. And you know, we had to fly over there a couple of times set up bank accounts, set up LLCs, all that kind of stuff. There's a lot of stuff that people don't see, but you know, a lot of, a lot of pain but now we're here where we are.
Bill Fairman (13:54):
Selling bit coin?
Beth Lechance (14:02):
If I could add to that too, finding the niche and especially within real estate investing. So I think of course there is now fast forward six, seven years. There's now so many options out there for trying to find or hiring a virtual assistant. But what we have done is we really focused in on the niche of real estate investors and making sure that we're bringing in the right talent, we're training them and fully train them at real estate and real estate investing and all of the potential tasks that would get delegated to them. So that's where we knew where really, where we could really hone in on. Bob has been in the coaching world for, you know, for, for decades now, Bob I'm aging you, but for decades now. You know, he really knew, okay, what are the tasks? What are the things that would be needed within a real estate investor for even a new real estate investor? What kind of things a VA would need to do to help them on a day to day basis? Versus a, an investor that is really that's really invested that has many years and that is really building a very large company, how then can we help with creating a virtual assistant tasks within that? And then managing all of that? Of course, because part of our services that we also manage that. So, that's really where our specialty is. Whereas a lot of other virtual assistant companies, they don't specialize in that. They just specialize with, Yes, we'll hook you up with a great virtual assistant, but they don't specialize in the, in the training portion and like what we do.
Wendy Sweet (15:35):
Awesome! So I'm interested in seeing what that looks like. I'm an investor and you know, coming to you and saying, Hey, I need help in these different areas. So how do you take it from there? What do you do?
Bill Fairman (15:50):
And before you answer that question. Those of you on the audience can also ask questions by using the chat to the right.
Wendy Sweet (15:56):
That's right! That's right! That's right! Please chat questions for sure.
Beth Lechance (16:02):
Yeah. I can take this one. So what we do is we, we can, typically someone will come to us with knowing what their pain points are. So they already know where they need the help. Many investors are so overwhelmed and we help them kind of narrow it down to a list of tasks that we can immediately take off of their plate to put onto a virtual assistant and onto a trained virtual assistant with those tasks. So that's where we start. So that conversation begins with, where are your pain points? What are the things that are the task that can be, that are done over and over and over again, that you shouldn't be spending your time doing? You should be spending your time building your business? Bob always uses the term, which I love. The saying you know, if you're doing $10 tasks, you have a $10 bank account. So all of those tasks and those redundant things that are absolutely necessary, they're necessary as a part of your business, but they're not necessary for you to do. They can be delegated to a virtual assistant. So that's where we come in. So we narrow that down to what those pain points are. And then from there we bring our client through our onboarding process. So that's how we, and also, we also have clients that come to us that are like, I'm just so overwhelmed. I don't even know where to begin. And so of course we start with the pain points, but then we also have a 100 plus task list that we'll send them. That will help them. It's like a worksheet. They can kind of check off things that they know. Yes, I need this. Yes, I need that. And it helps us then help prioritize what tasks can you immediately delegate it to a VA?
Bob Lechance (17:37):
Yeah. Beth, I could add to that too. We typically break it down into income producing tasks and non-income producing tasks. So no matter what business you're in, it doesn't matter if you're, you got to use a virtual assistant or not virtual assistant. A great exercise to go through is grab a piece of paper, write down a, you know, a line in the middle of the piece of paper, put income-producing tasks, non-income producing tasks. So as a real estate professional, and we work with not only property managers, we work with investors agents on the real estate side, and that's the logo behind her. She has a medical division that we launched a little over a year ago.
Wendy Sweet (18:13):
Wow!
Beth Lechance (18:14):
Yep. So that's why the logos are different. I just want to make sure I say that. Because I don't think you're gonna ask. So just go along the lines with the example there, I would definitely recommend everybody does that. And what you'll find are all the non-income producing tasks. So if I'm a real estate investor, a lot of the tasks would be building a buyers list that does not put any money in my pocket. Cause I'm sitting there not building my business. I'm scraping leads online, posting the Craigslist, posting the Facebook, scraping leads from Zillow. So on the lead generation side. Then once you have all of those leads ,for me as an investor, it doesn't benefit me to pick up the phone and just hammer the phone. I'd rather have a virtual assistant do that. It doesn't benefit me to text message after you get all of those prospects, if you will skip trace to get a proper phone number for those particular prospects. Once you put them into a text message platform, it doesn't do me as the business owner, any good text messaging, potential clients back and forth. We have our virtual assistants do that to gauge seller motivation. Then when they deem at hot, they give it over to us. So those are, that's just a couple examples of some of the time consuming things that that you could get off of your plate. Then you'll notice that's on that list. Those are non-income producing tasks. Income producing tasks are, you know, jumping on podcast promoting. Going to masterminds, like, like we're all part of the same one, right? I know this virtual one, the beauty of, of the last mastermind call where I was a two day mastermind. And we, Beth and I did not have to worry about lead generation at all and making sure our marketing was going out because our virtual assistants took care of that. So that's a good example of things that you could just outsource to a virtual assistant.
Wendy Sweet (20:11):
Yeah. I think the key word that you guys have used over and over again is trained virtual assistant. That's the key, I, we've, we've dabbled in the virtual assistant world and failed both times because we didn't go through a company like yours. And we did a really poor job of training them. Letting them know what it is that we needed. So what do you do that's different?
Bob Lechance (20:40):
Yeah. And some of the things that we do, and that's a great point. And I actually just got off a call right before we jumped down to this one, with that same exact challenge there. We put our virtual assistants through a month long training. But one of the things that I did want to highlight, I always, I use this example all the time. It's the 80-20 rule, right? Let's say we're all investors. We all learn off the same platform, right? The same education platform. But I like to say it's an 80-20 rule where you have, you know, someone like Corey Raymond, that's doing 20% of his business, a little different. That's where the gold is made. You've got Jimmy Vreeland, who does his business, a little different. He wholesales rehabs and also has a buy and hold company, property management company. That's the 20% that's different. So that 20% is definitely going to be specific to each and every one of us. Right? So I'll give you a good example. We do, Beth and I, do here in Connecticut. We have a different foreclosure process than everybody else. So we have a judicial website that we have a virtual assistant going through every single day to look for individuals that stopped paying their mortgage. And they go up and they log into the judicial website looking for any property that has a new sale date, a foreclosure auction date, because our process is very, very long. So our VAs track all of that and then pull a phone number, put it on a spreadsheet, texts and call them for us as an example. So that is just something that we do. That's the 20% that we do different on that side of it. I have to create a video for them, 5-10 minute video for them. And that hand that off to them to make sure that they are trained on that little niche of what I want, what I want to get done. All of our other VA's are trained on how to text message, how to cold call, how to follow up. Things of those nature.
Bill Fairman (22:38):
What are some of the obstacles you have from having virtual assistants in another serious time zone? Plus you know, distance on the phone? Are you seeing any pushback from some of the people that they're talking to on the phone? I know from experience, there's very little accent there. That's noticeable, but I always know if somebody is out of the country because there's always a long delay between talking to them on the phone. Texting works better.
Bob Lechance (23:13):
And that's a great question. So we, in our, in our recruiting. With our recruiting department is they do we do a systems check. So we check all of their systems and make sure that there's no delay. So that's one of them. You make sure they have enough storage on their computer and make sure they have backup. Make sure that internet providers are correct provider. So we take care of all that to make sure that doesn't happen. But on top of that, this is a little tip. If anyone has an active virtual assistant as well, make sure you get a local number, if you're doing cold calling or text messaging, because that's important. I mean, Wendy, you called me and it's 704 number, and I didn't know this was you. So text me. I'm not perfect. Right? That's a perfect example of making sure no matter what, if you're going to use one of our virtual assistants or somebody else that you do get a local number. So those are just a couple ideas, Beth, if you want to add anything or did I tackle all on this?
Beth Lechance (24:07):
Yeah, no, you did. So, Bill, that's a really big factor that we have seen. And again, that's from working with companies or working with direct VA's that you didn't have, you didn't have the systems check. You didn't make sure that they had the correct internet provider. Internet in the Philippines is very different than the internet here. And so it's very important that they're set up with their proper company. And so that there isn't that delay. So, that's one of the things that we do ahead of time. That's part of our systems check and part of our, what we do. So as soon as we bring in a new virtual assistant that's, that is part of our process. So ultimately they don't go through training unless they have the right system. So that's how that, how that works with us.
Bill Fairman (24:50):
Excellent! So in the real estate side of things, what do you think is the largest utilization for virtual assistants? Is it, is it say the wholesale side of things or who is, who's your typical client?
Bob Lechance (25:12):
You want to take this Beth or you want me to take it?
Beth Lechance (25:16):
Bob's gonna have a long winded answer, so I'll let him. I'll let him take it, but great, great question because we have, we have every possible specialty within real estate and real estate investing. Those are our clients. I would say the most, most of our clients have some sort of wholesaling or doing wholesaling. However, we have found that most of our clients have moved in the direction of, they're not just doing one thing in order to really do well in real estate investing. They really need to be able to find cash in deals in multiple ways. And that is not just wholesaling. That is not just buy and holds. That's not just flipping. So most of our clients have put together multiple exit strategies as part of their business. So, but I'll let, I'll let Bob kind of go in a little bit deeper you know, as to why, you know, why they're doing that or also what tasks they have our VAs do.
Bob Lechance (26:11):
You nailed it! I got nothing else to talk about. That's good! Just to add to that.
Bill Fairman (26:20):
We knew there was going to be, just to add.
Bob Lechance (26:27):
And there's more and more just to add to it. That's what we find right now in our own business as well. Where we're seeing more investors that are starting on the wholesale side. Now they're doing rehabs. Now they're getting into buy and holds and they're also getting their real estate license. So it's kind of those four things that we're seeing and there's tasks that you can outsource on each one of those, because within each business, there's a lot of time consuming things, you know. With wholesaling, building a buyers list, marketing. With rehabbing, you know, it's marketing. You've got to keep marketing, getting the phone on, and getting the leads in, right, getting the leads in. And then you'll look at them on the agent side. It is cold calling, following up and transaction coordinating. And on a property management side, it's a laundry list of things from, you know, taking inbound calls, not only from tenants, but taking inbound calls from potential or from, from other individual investors that you're managing properties for. It's maintenance calls, it's leasing, it's lease renewals, things like that. So we're finding it is getting more and more even out on those four avenues of real estate investing because they're really coming together because that is how the best investors are getting through any type of ups and downs. Because, you know, if you're only wholesaling, it's going to be very difficult to get through some markets when they change. But when you're doing a little bit of everything, it's easy for you to pivot and change and not get hit by a COVID or not get hit by a financial downturn like we did in '07, '08, '09, et cetera. So that's what we're finding the smart investors go through. And that's a lot of our clients right now are starting to, you know, change or dip their toes in like Beth and I, as, as investors. We're now starting to buy single family houses with section eight tenants. That's just a little diversification plan to say, Hey, guess what? If there's less flips and less wholesales over here, Hey, who cares? And our kids are getting ready to go to college, we'll have enough money to be able to pay for them on their cash flow, where the houses is, the idea.
Wendy Sweet (28:36):
Well, I think that COVID probably helped you guys in a big way because now people realize that you don't have to have a body in your office to get things done. It made us realize that there were a lot more things that we could do from home, you know, and that our employees could do from home rather than have to come into the office and do things like that. I know, you know, you talked about property management, I'm an air, a short term rental junkie, and I'm getting more and more and I'm getting more and more busy from it. You know, I've really already have a full time job, but my sidekick is becoming you know, busier and busier. So I need somebody, preferably a VA that would be a lot less expensive than a real body to take care of all the little tasks that are behind the scenes. And there's so many out there, so many tasks out there that need to be taken care of, you know, talking with the tenant, that's getting ready to check in making sure the cleaner's doing their job.
Bill Fairman (29:45):
I was going to say, we need a VA to clean the places.
Wendy Sweet (29:47):
Yeah. That would be really nice, but I need real hands for that. Yeah.
Bob Lechance (29:53):
And the CRM management behind that, obviously you have a CRM behind it and coordinating with tenants that come in, come out.
Wendy Sweet (29:59):
How do you know they're working? Like, you know, you're paying somebody $10 an hour. How do you know they're working? What are some of the tools you have in place to make sure they're doing what they're supposed to be doing?
Bob Lechance (30:11):
Well, we always start from the beginning. We said, what are the results that each and every, whether an Airbnb or you're wholesaling, rehabbing, what is it, the task that you want done? And what are the typical results that you actually have? And throughout the day, you know, we're messaging back and forth with our VAs. We have either it's our CRM. So for us, we use two different CRMs. We have a Real Flow and we also use a Podio based platform which is one of our new members as part of our evolution. So we use that in our VAs, inside our CRM all day long, outbound dialing as an example. Right. And we, they send an end of day report every single day to see what tasks were expected in what they got done. So we track the numbers in reference to that. But that's a great question. Beth, did you want to add to it, anything like that?
Beth Lechance (31:04):
Yeah, sure. So productivity is always a really big factor, right? So, I mean, we always want to look at that, especially when you have someone who's not in your office, they're in their own home virtual office. Right. So there's a few different ways to involve touched upon that at the end of day report. The end of day report is really the proof of the pudding, right? I mean, you can see how many avant dials were made, how many new appointments were then added into your calendar or your acquisitions manager's calendar, so on and so forth. So all of that is you can see when someone is really being productive and whether or not, if there is ever a productivity issue that has immediately brought up, we have a client service manager in our real estate, in our real estate division. We have client service managers, what's their role to oversee the VAs that are assigned to our clients. So they're also touching base with the VA's to make sure that they're doing their roles, they're hitting the client's expectations. And so that person is a really important person to the success of that partnership between the VA and the client. So we set those expectations. So Wendy, if you started with us and you needed to hire a virtual assistant. We would immediately set you up with our client services manager to find out what are your expectations. What is the productivity level that you're expecting to see? So then therefore that client service manager is keeping an eye on that VA everyday to make sure they're hitting those expectations. So beyond that, of course, there's additional tools that you can add. If it's out bound dialing, for example, you can look within your avant dialing system and it tells you how many minutes the VA was actually actively dialing, how many calls were made and so on and so forth. There's also other tools that you can download onto their computer to be able to do screenshots here and there to make sure that they're actively working. So, but productivity, I mean, if you have the correct end of day report set up, you will see that your VA is really working and working at the level you're expecting.
Wendy Sweet (32:58):
Right. I know, I know in our office, our whole attitude is, you know, we don't really care how long you're working as long as your work is done. As long as we're getting accomplished, what we're looking for, that's, what's really, really important for us. So, say I just needed somebody part time, you know, five hours a week or just five hours a day.
Bill Fairman (33:23):
You stole my question!
Wendy Sweet (33:23):
Oh, I'm sorry. Well, you can ask him, go ahead. I won't do it.
Bill Fairman (33:26):
It's already been spoiled! But yeah. Do you have a maximum or minimum that you would have somebody doing tasks for someone for a smaller business perhaps?
Beth Lechance (33:38):
Right. Great, great question. So we here at Reva global, we do not have project based. So for example, if he said, Oh, I just needed somebody to do my social media two hours a week. We don't have those positions available. Our commitment to our VA's is to get them full time work. So that's how we're able to bring in really highly talented people. And we keep them. Our retention is very high here because we offer good pay. We also offer a fantastic benefits package. That includes things like health insurance for themselves, and a dependent. Fully funded by us. They don't pay copays, they don't pay deductibles. They don't pay into the health insurance as well as a robust benefits package that has a lot of other things. So that's also part of making sure when you're hiring a VA, if you're going with a company, make sure that they've got a really great retention rate and their VA stay long term because you're investing in the time with your VA and you want them to stay. So our commitment to our VA's is full time work. So we offer part time 20 hours a week with one client, and then we give them the opportunity to get hired by an additional client for the other 20 hours a week to give them full time work. If then if you wanted to have a full time VA, then that one VA would be working directly and only for you. And there are 40 hours a week. Plus if you want it to them to add an additional hours on top of that would only be delegated and working towards you and your business. So that's how we do that. We do have some full time plus VAs. Meaning we have some VA's that want to work overtime. And so for clients like yourselves, if you had a VA of ours and you said, you know what, but I also just need X, Y, and Z, but it might only be for a short project. Like I need, you know, we built a new CRM. So all the stuff from the old CRM needs to go into the new one. Can we hire somebody? Absolutely. You're a client of ours. We will get you a project based VA for something like that. So that's how we work internally here. And that's how we're able to get some really good talent and they stay long term.
Bill Fairman (35:29):
Well, it makes sense. I know you guys act like a family. I've seen pictures of your employees at Christmas and when you guys go to visit. It really is cool.
Wendy Sweet (35:43):
Really cool!
Beth Lechance (35:45):
Yeah. It's one of the things that we're really most proud of is even though I, you know, everyone that works for us is across the other side of the world. I'm aware we're with them virtually, constantly. I mean, every day, all day, we're interacting with them through the screen. Right. But when we get to get, when we do get together, it is like a big giant family function. We, we also do outreach in the communities, in the Philippines as well. So we have something called, Helping Hands foundation which is we pick a charity in the Philippines that we feel strongly agreed about. Typically it's something around children. And we donate funds and also our time and energy into some sort of corporate or some event around that. So for example, our last one that we did, Helping Hands project we did was at home for the angels, which was, which is in the Philippines in Manila. It is a home for abandoned babies. So babies, the age from three weeks up to three years old, they are there in this one. This one home called the Home For The Angels. Which so we obviously donated funds to, to help with paying for medicine vaccinations. And then also we spent a full day there with 25 of our virtual assistants. Cause we were capped at 25. We had a tremendous number of VA's that wanted to help in this event, but we were capped at 25. Cause that's all like, they, the home would allow us to bring in. And we would spend hours just playing and holding all these children. It was just so great. So that's something we also feel really proud of that we can participate and have our virtual assistants participate in something, you know, to help the greater good. So yeah, it's always, we all get together.
Wendy Sweet (37:30):
That was awesome!
Bill Fairman (37:31):
Yeah, that, that is great! I, we were getting kind of close on time. I did want to mention something about your medical side of things.
Wendy Sweet (37:41):
Yeah! Let's hear about that!
Beth Lechance (37:43):
Right now with what's going on. I'm seeing really great things, especially on the dental side if you can get in there because I'm seeing after they're allowed to get back to work. They're not going to have as many clients or patients. The dentist is going to have to do a lot more of the work themselves. And this is going to be very helpful for them to have more VA's. Right?
Beth Lechance (38:12):
Absolutely!
Bill Fairman (38:12):
That's what I'm saying going forward. What about you?
Beth Lechance (38:16):
Yeah, no, absolutely. COVID was has been an eye opener for medical practices and hospital settings across the country. What they didn't think that they could do telehealth. They didn't think that they could do things virtually and now they forced to. So this is really been a phenomenal opportunity for Reva Global Medical, because those hard to reach doctors, there were like, eh, no, that now I have their total by him. They are really excited about this. It's possible we can do all their insurance verifications. We can do their new patient intakes. We can, it, we can do anything in terms of the management of the patient virtually. So, it has really taken off. It has gone really well for us in this last year and a half, and we've had to curb our marketing because I like slow and steady. I don't like to be slammed because I also want to make sure that every client, every new medical practice gets our full attention to get up and running. To make sure that things go well, obviously with HIPAA and making sure that, you know all health information is fully protected. So we make sure that we fully understand the concept of the medical practice and how we're going to be utilized in that practice. We come up and design all of the trainings. So in the event that they want to continue to add on which every single client that we have brought on so far has started with one virtual assistant and have expanded to two, three, four. So I have seen, I mean, it has really expanded within each medical practice and in an incredible way. So it's an exciting thing. But like I said, we had to curb our marketing because again, we want to make sure that we can pay the attention that we need to, to every new client that's brought on new medical practice that we are fully engaged. So but it's, it's an exciting time for us, for sure.
Wendy Sweet (40:18):
Wow!
Bill Fairman (40:19):
Well, one of the things, I didn't want to make it sound like they're not going to make as much money and things are gloomy. With the video, because it actually is an opportunity to combine video with follow-up visits. For example, if a, you know, you're a dentist and you've put clients in, you always have to have a follow-up visit. You can easily schedule a video for them to look at this as long as they have the proper lighting and know how to work it. And then that means you don't have to have an assistant or agentis and a chair being filled when somebody else on the money making side can be in that chair. The same thing with medical professionals. There's things that you can do tele-wise that still frees up the doctor and the chair or the bed that they normally wouldn't have that followup visit in. Right? Schedule, more money making visits instead of follow ups. Right?
Beth Lechance (41:23):
Absolutely! And you would be able to utilize a virtual assistant to be able to manage all of that. Plus there will always have to be at some point a an in person visit with the physician. So if that's the case, the medical assistant and or front desk person now, the way they're having to work, these medical practices is all the patients are all coming in and sitting in the waiting room anymore. They're out on their car waiting to be called in. So utilizing a VA to be able to manage the patients coming and going any paperwork that they need to have before they come. All of that stuff can be managed by the VA so that the front office staff and or medical assistant can really just focus on the patient care and making sure that they're properly bringing the patient into the room and then escorting them out. All the, while all the rest of it is being handled and handled by a VA. So and we've, we've been utilized in that fashion immediately with some of our medical practices because just managing, I mean the front desk of a medical practice is always extremely busy. Now on top of that, they're expected to walk out to the patient's car, give them any paperwork, take their temperature before they're allowed to walk in. So that's taking them out of their chair and out of their desks while there's still incoming calls coming in and triaging that needs to get happen. That needs to be happening. So that's where a virtual assistant, they're not going to take up a chair. They're not going to take up any space in the practice. They're not going to be another risk as another, another person in the office with the presentation of COVID. So so they're able to manage the you know, patients as they get into the parking lot. They're making a phone call to the VA. The VA is notifying the office. They're sending out, sending any paperwork that needs to be done through email or through text message so that they can quickly put in the information they need. And then therefore, then the patient is allowed to enter the building. So there's different ways to be able to utilize virtual assistants, especially right now, but most definitely long term.
Wendy Sweet (43:24):
That's just, it's amazing! It's just amazing! And I think that a lot of people don't realize how easy it is to put a VA in place of so many tasks that we're doing. And in our, our show that we're going to have at 1:05 or 1:10, a little after one o'clock. Little after one o'clock. We're going to have some companies that are actually using your VA's. We're going to have some people talking about how they use them and what they use them for, how they're trained, how they're working out. And I think that's going to be a really good thing for a lot of people to hear. How can people get in touch with you? What's the best way for them to reach you?
Beth Lechance (44:09):
Go ahead, Bob.
Bob Lechance (44:11):
Sure. You check us out on our website, which is RevaGlobal.com which you can email me direct as well. Email myself or Beth. My email address is Bob@RevaGlobal.com Beth is Beth@RevaGlobal.com. We also have a podcast in Friday mornings called Friday Coffee Break at 10:00 AM. We have fun time answering, it's just open Q and a questions myself. You know, Pat Precourt and Amy Raines though, we do that as a, as a call. So it's another way to it, just to, just to get to know us as a company.
Wendy Sweet (44:45):
Awesome! And how can we, how can we get on that? And hear that?
Bob Lechance (44:50):
Just go onto Facebook and it's Friday Coffee Break unfiltered.
Wendy Sweet (44:55):
Ok. Awesome!
Bill Fairman (44:55):
Excellent. So you guys can do that right after Wendy Sunrise. Our meeting every Friday.
Wendy Sweet (45:00):
That's right! Mine's at 7:30.
Bob Lechance (45:03):
Yeah. Med VA website.
Beth Lechance (45:08):
Med Va is RevaGlobalMD.com RevaGlobalMD.com
Wendy Sweet (45:13):
Okay!
Bill Fairman (45:14):
Excellent.
Wendy Sweet (45:15):
All right.
Bill Fairman (45:15):
So if anyone has any questions about what Carolina Capital Management does, we are CarolinaHardMoney.com If you're a borrower looking to borrow, hit the borrower tab! That's easy. If you're an investor looking to get passive income through real estate, without the worries of ownership, hit the investor tab!
Wendy Sweet (45:38):
That's right! Tell all your friends!
Bill Fairman (45:40):
Guys, thank you so much. Those of you that are joining us as an audience we'll be back on...
Wendy Sweet (45:46):
A little after one, on a different link, right? Isn't it a different link?
Bill Fairman (45:49):
And you guys are going to join us as well.
Wendy Sweet (45:51):
Yeah. We'll have you back.
Bob Lechance (45:57):
Awesome.
Bill Fairman (45:58):
Alright!
Beth Lechance (45:58):
Thank you guys. Thank you.
Wendy Sweet (46:00):
Thank you.
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